Video content may be transmitted in a variety of ways. One way involves digitizing the video content and transferring the digitized video content to a playback device in multiple packets using the Internet Protocol (IP). Video content provided using this technique is often referred to as IP video.
IP video servers may stream IP video to playback devices in real time. A playback device may connect to an IP video server at any point during a live IP video stream and begin playback. IP video is typically a pull-based technology in which a playback device requests portions of the video content from an IP video server. In response to the requests, the IP video server transmits the requested video content to the playback device. Playback devices may connect to an IP video server at slightly different times and thus receive the portions of video content at different times. As a result, playback of an IP video stream across multiple playback devices may occur at different times and thus be out of sync.
Therefore a need exists for synchronizing video streams across multiple playback devices.